This blog post looks at the International Brigaders of the Spanish Civil War, through the passport and story of International Brigader Albert Cole.

International Bridgader passport of Albert Cole, Working Class Movement Library

“Comrades of the International Brigades! Political reasons, reasons of state, the good of that same cause for which you offered your blood with limitless generosity, send some of you back to your countries and some to forced exile. You can go with pride. You are history. You are legend. You are the heroic example of the solidarity and the universality of democracy.”

On 17th July 1936 a group of army officers launched a military coup in an attempt to overthrow the democratic Republican government of Spain. The coup was only partially successful and the country split in half and a bitter civil war ensued.